In 1969 when singer Peggy Lee released, Is that all there is, she posed an intense existential question. She wasn’t searching for an after-life but musing about the disappointment that life can be, even when faced with the unbridled energy that is a raging fire or lost love. Since I’ve been tangling with dislocation from […]
Spirituality beyond dogma: a creative balancing act
Musician Moana Maniapoto found her beliefs challenged when the ashes of Headless Chicken’s founder Grant Fell were sprinkled on stage during an award ceremony by his wife Rachael. But one of Fell’s colleagues said, ‘I felt like he was there. It was a total magic moment for us.’ The broadening out of how we express […]
Humanist chaplains help normalise spirituality in healthcare
Lindsay van Dijk, a humanist, has been appointed by the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust to lead a chaplaincy team that includes Christian, Buddhist, and Bahai members. As Lindsay told the Guardian, ‘A lot of people don’t have an organised faith, but still have spiritual and emotional needs at difficult times. Often people are trying to […]
Shame on you Dr Billy Graham
Dr Billy Graham, often called one of the most influential Christian leaders of the 21st Century, died on 21st February. He was a powerful influence on my life in the 1950’s and 60’s, and not in a good way. His evangelical preaching filled stadiums worldwide including New Zealand in 1959 but by the time of […]
No religion but still soulful
The moment arrived. I opened the New Zealand Census webpage, filled in my code and with one click of the mouse became a No Religion, one of the fastest growing groups in our community. To be honest, I didn’t feel that I had an option. Although I’ve tangled with what we mean by God for most […]
Jacinda, Episcopalians and El Shaddai
Jacinda Adern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, is having a baby. But you probably already know that unless you’ve been holidaying on Mars. Her partner Clarke is to be the main caregiver dealing with the general insanity a new addition brings along with getting baby to mum for feeds whether she’s running a caucus meeting, […]
Not Christian theology!
‘So,’ said my Jungian analyst, voice quiet but interested. ‘You didn’t put your ordination dates in this autobiography.’ I scrambled to find the page and chuckled when I realised that I hadn’t even noticed the omission. An inadvertent absence was pointing to something more. Two years have passed since I stepped out into the uncertain […]
on rainbows, chaos, Prof Dawkins and the tail end of an elephant
like rainbows that never reach the pot of gold there’s a kind of beauty in the unrealised the unfinished, the chaotic omnipotent god (the one Prof Dawkins fights with good on him but it’s limited, like only seeing an elephant from the tail end) as I was saying, omnipotent god might feel frustrated in that […]
Absent God
Absent God missing in action, always guardian of open space blankness in my life. Sad? Perhaps but more than this the blankness is for me a symbol of what God might be rather than what God is not. There’s never been a time, God when I’ve felt your presence the kind of presence, people talk […]
Religion for atheists
‘Oh, I’m not religious’, is one of the first things people say to me when they know I’m a priest or chaplain. ‘That’s interesting’, seems the only reasonable response, which inevitably prompts a fascinating conversation about spirituality, the meaning of life and yes, even God, or more properly put, what on earth we mean by God. […]